William Wing Loring

William Wing Loring (4 December 1818-30 December 1886) was a Confederate States Army and Egyptian Army Major-General during and after the American Civil War.

Biography
William Wing Loring was born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1818, and he was raised in St. Augustine, Florida. He served in the militia during the First Seminole War before running away from home to serve in the Texian Army during the Texas Revolution of 1836. Loring went on to become a lawyer in 1842 and a member of the State House from 1843 to 1845, and he joined the US Army in 1846. He was wounded three times while commanding a mounted rifle regiment during the Mexican-American War, losing an arm during the charge into Mexico City. During the Gold Rush, he was appointed commander of the US forces in Oregon, and, at the age of 38 in 1856, he was made the youngest colonel in the army. After fighting against the Comanche, Apache, and Kiowa in the American West, he toured Europe in 1859 and studied European military tactics. When the American Civil War broke out, he sided with the American South, and he quickly became a Brigadier-General and was nicknamed "Old Blizzards" for ordering his men to deliver blizzards of fire to the Union troops at the Battle of Cheat Mountain. He later fought in the Western theater, including the Siege of Vicksburg, the Meridian Campaign, the Atlanta Campaign, and the Carolinas Campaign. After the war's end, he accepted the rank of Major-General in the Egyptian Army, fighting against the Ethiopians at the Battle of Gura in 1875; after the Egyptian defeat, the Americans were blamed, and, due to financial difficulties, the Khedive was forced to dismiss the Americans in 1878. Loring later mounted a failed US Senate race, and he died in New York City in 1886.